


Out Of The Shadows

by NoahParker



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Hurt, Hydra (Marvel), Post Season 1, Skye | Daisy Johnson Needs a Hug, Skye | Daisy Johnson-centric, Trust Issues, but skye wasn't in it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24487537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoahParker/pseuds/NoahParker
Summary: When Jemma has to collect an asset for Hydra, she doesn't expect to find a girl.Daisy has been haunted by the evil organization since the day she was born. Now she's haunted by who she's become.
Relationships: Bobbi Morse & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson
Comments: 58
Kudos: 149





	1. Out Of The Wolf's House

Jemma tried to stop fidgeting. She had just left to go on a mission with Bakshi, to retrieve one of their assets. The only thing calming her nerves even just a little bit was the thought that SHIELD would be hiding in the shadows.

She’d briefed Coulson on the mission and he was adamant on not letting Hydra get to the asset. He’d been very clear about it: either they get to it first, or they make sure that the other organization would not leave with it.

Maybe she’d be less anxious if she at least knew what the asset was. Knowing Hydra, it could be either a catastrophically dangerous weapon, a person, or both.

When they arrived, Bakshi pulled her aside to brief her shortly. Her eyes went wide when she saw the picture. On it there was a young woman, probably barely 25 years old.

Bakshi started explaining. “You’re here as a friendly face. As you’re relatively new to our facility, she won’t recognize you as Hydra. Under no circumstances do you bring up who you’re working for. Try keeping her civil, otherwise you will get not only us but also yourself in big trouble. She’s a dangerous individual.”

Jemma couldn’t believe that such a nice and chipper looking girl could mean so much danger. She’d have to see that with her own eyes.

“What’s her name?”

Her superior looked at her with a malicious glint in his eyes.

“Skye.”

That was the name she called out softly, when she was walking through the cold and dark corridors of the ship.

She got no response, but she hadn’t expected any. A few rooms further, she spotted dark shapes on the floor.

Hydra agents, either knocked unconscious or dead. Their weapons lay next to them in pieces. Looking around, she didn’t find any trace of the woman she was searching.

“Skye”, she called out once again. This time she was surprised to hear a response.

“That’s not my name.”

A shadow appeared from behind some cargo boxes. “The only ones who know that name are either dead or part of an evil organization that kidnaps little kids to turn them into weapons. And you look like neither.”

Standing in the light, opposed to her target, Jemma felt very exposed.

“What is your name then?”, the scientist asked gently. Hopefully the woman hadn’t heard the tremble in her voice.

“I’ll tell you what, you get me out of here and I tell you my name.” Jemma couldn’t make out if that was sarcasm, or if the woman was actually bargaining for her freedom.

She wanted to apologize, because the only way either of them was leaving there was with Hydra, SHIELD or dead. Before she got time to open her mouth, she heard Bakshi in her ear.

_Convince her to come with you._

How was she supposed to do that?

“I’m here to help you.” God, she felt awful about herself for lying. “Nobody’s going to hurt you if you come with me. You don’t have to be afraid.”

The woman scoffed. “I’m not afraid.” As if to prove her point, she stepped out of the shadows.

Jemma didn’t know what too feel. This was just a girl, yet she indeed didn’t look afraid at all. More like she was angry.

“But you are”, the woman - no, girl continued. “In fact, you’re terrified. I don’t think you’re actually Hydra. What are you doing here? Kidnapped and forced to do their bidding? No, that’s not it. You’re undercover, aren’t you.”

 _Shit._ Bakshi was listening in and if he wasn’t already suspicious, he would be now.

“Don’t worry, your comms aren’t working anymore”, the girl said, as if she’d read her mind.

She heard footsteps behind her.

“Simmons!”, Bakshi called out. “What’s taking so long? Why aren’t you responding to my orders?”

He was flanked by several agents pointing their guns at them. When he saw that she’d found the target, he smiled.

“Good work, agent. Let’s go.”

Jemma saw the change in the girl’s stance. She was preparing to fight her way out of this one.

Before either of them could move, a gunshot rang. The girl pulled her to the ground and she saw the hole the bullet made in the wall, right next to where her head had been.

She turned to thank her, but the girl’s eyes rolled back. The chaos had given the Hydra agents the chance to shoot her with a tranquilizer.

They quickly hoisted the girl up and Jemma followed closely behind them. She was not keen on getting shot at again, whoever that had been.

By the time they’d gotten out of there, Jemma had made up her mind. She was getting this girl, whatever her real name may be, out of Hydra.

It didn’t end up being that easy. After the mission, Bakshi did trust her more, but not enough to let her know what they did with the girl.

Several days had passed since she last saw her and she had still gotten nowhere.

During the last briefing, Jemma hadn’t dared to say anything to Coulson about her intentions of saving the girl.

He’d think it was too dangerous, tell her off for even trying.

Twelve days after the mission on the boat, she finally saw her chance. One of Hydra’s high ranked officers had just apprehended one of her colleagues, who supposedly was a traitor.

He really wasn’t, but Jemma wasn’t about to tell that to the scary woman. She had better things to do, like saving a young woman from Hydra’s claws.

She sneaked into the room where the girl was supposed to be, according to her research. And indeed, there she was, suspended against the wall.

Her head was held upright and her eyes kept wide open, in front of her was a screen with weird patterns.

This was so much worse than Jemma had expected. They were brainwashing her.

She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, when the girl’s eyes flitted towards her and a defensive look took place on her face. She couldn’t have been here for that long yet, the brainwashing hadn’t been successful. Yet.

Jemma put her finger in front of her mouth, motioning to the girl to keep quiet. Then, she quickly went to free her of the shackles on the wall.

A sudden sound behind her made them both startle and she turned around, finding that the scary woman was standing behind her.

Weird thing was, the woman didn’t attack her. Instead she urged her to move faster and follow her.

“What-”, Jemma started to ask, before being interrupted.

“Coulson has a plan.”

Jemma closed her eyes tiredly for a second. She had just jumped from a skyscraper onto an invisible jet and honestly, the past two weeks had had enough action in them to last her a year or three.

Luckily – if one could call it that – her cover had just been compromised so she wouldn’t have to go back to Hydra, ever.

The scary woman identified herself as Bobbi Morse, apparently one of SHIELD’s best agents.

“How did you know I was there?”, she asked the agent.

“Coulson told me to help you get her out. He had a vague suspicion that her capture did not sit well with you.”

Now that they were talking about the girl, she noticed that she was swaying a little on her feet.

Jemma urged her to sit down and let her take a look at the arm she was holding close to her body.

After a quick assessment, she concluded that it might be broken. She wanted to ask what happened back at Hydra, but the bruises on the girl’s face told her enough.

“Daisy”, the girl said suddenly.

Jemma and the other SHIELD agent looked at each other in confusion.

“You got me out – thanks by the way – so I owed you my name. Which is Daisy. Daisy Johnson.”

Bobbi shrugged and smiled. “Nice to meet you, Daisy.”

Daisy looked at the two of them in slight discomfort.

“Well, nice to meet you too and really, thanks a lot, but I’ve gotta go. Got places to be, people to strangle for selling me out.”

Jemma looked down in shame. “You can’t leave. You’re coming with us.”

Daisy’s eyes filled with disbelief.

“God”, she muttered to herself, turning away from them, “I’m such an idiot. And here I thought someone was finally going to save me.” She sighed. “Out of the wolf’s house, straight into the lion’s den.”

While the young woman's eyes started to droop, Jemma wondered how they were going to convince her that they were the good guys, not just another facility that just kidnapped her. The last part was going to be especially hard, considering they technically did kidnap her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this might actually be more of a draft, but I'm wondering if the story could interest someone  
> let me know if you like it!


	2. Into The Lion's Den

Daisy woke up with a start. She’d been dreaming of dark rooms, glowing syringes and crazy laughter. She looked up to find big, worried eyes watching her.

_Simmons. Hydra. Jumping of a building._

It all came back to her, flooding her mind with information.

She took in her surroundings. Simmons couldn’t be much of a threat, but the other agent was quite the obstacle. In the pilot’s seat was another agent.

If she could distract Morse, perhaps she might be able to get Simmons out of the way. Then she only had to fight the others one on one, because surely the pilot couldn’t just leave his position.

Convinced that this was the best and only option she had, Daisy prepared herself to jump into action. Both women were still watching her closely, to her chagrin.

She looked at the woman in front of her and decided that she might have the best chance at playing the long game.

“What happened?”, Daisy asked her, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion. “Where am I?”

Simmons smiled at her softly. If Daisy didn’t know better than that, she’d almost assume it was genuine.

“You were being held by Hydra”, the agent started explaining. “Agent Morse and I freed you and we’re getting you to a safe place right now.”

Daisy was glad she’d been either training or running most of her life. Veining surprise and fear was fairly easy and it rarely failed.

“Hydra?” She let her voice tremble a bit. “Why- what do they want? Who are you? Where are you taking me?”

Just the way she’d expected, Simmons softened up even more. She walked over to Daisy and sat at her side.

“My name is Jemma and I work for an organization that keeps the world safe from things like Hydra or things that are out of this world. We don’t know who you are to them or what they wanted, but we were hoping you could help us find out.”

The gentle hand placed on her shoulder told Daisy that this Jemma was absolutely falling for her show. Morse was a different story. The agent was looking at her with the suspicion clear in her eyes.

It was becoming obvious that she wouldn’t be able to distract her, so Daisy was going to need to adapt to the situation.

In a second, she grabbed Simmons and closed her arms around the woman’s throat, ignoring the stabbing pain that shot up from her left forearm.

Morse jumped up from her seat and moved her hand towards her gun, but Daisy stopped her.

“Not an inch”, she warned her. “Don’t move or I snap your agent’s neck.”

Technically, that wasn’t what she would do, but she wasn’t about to go into detail of all the ways she could shatter every bone in that woman’s body.

“Okay, so this is what’s going to happen”, Daisy declared. “You let me go and I spare her life. Or you can choose to be dumb about it and she dies.”

She saw the hesitation on Morse’s face. It was obvious that she cared about her colleague’s life, even though Daisy knew they barely just met each other.

“Please”, Simmons said. It took Daisy a moment to realize that agent wasn’t talking to her. “I’m sorry but everyone has their limits, agent Morse. I don’t want to die before I see Fitz. My hands are a little tied, with Daisy here restricting my airway.”

Daisy listened to her ramblings in confusion. Was Simmons really willing to let her go just like that? And who was Fitz anyways?

She didn’t understand why Morse put her hands up in surrender, but she wasn’t going to question her victory.

Still, she also wasn’t going to take anything for granted. Any of them could change their mind at any moment, so she’d better put some speed into this.

Arms still wrapped around Simmons’s neck, she jumped up. And then doubled over in pain, accidentally releasing the agent, who quickly scrambled over to the other side of the jet.

For god’s sake, Daisy must really be tired to miss the fact that they’d tied her to her seat. The belts had just now been pressed into her ribs which were probably very bruised if not broken.

Daisy wheezed, closing her eyes to try and gain control over herself.

When the pain finally started to subside she opened her eyes and found that the women at least had the decency to not look smug at her epic fail.

Morse looked frustrated, while Simmons’s eyes were filled with pity.

“You tied me up?”, Daisy snarled at them. “That’s your idea of a safe space?”

“Agent Morse-” “Bobbi.” “Bobbi here thought we should buckle you up so you wouldn’t fall from your seat while sleeping.”

 _Oh._ That actually made sense. Still, that was no explanation as to why she wasn’t free to go.

The taller woman crouched in front of her, out of reach, of course, but still close. “Why don’t you want to let us help you, Daisy?”, she asked softly.

That was the first time Daisy heard her be gentle towards someone. It filled her chest with a warm feeling that she forced out. They weren’t friends. She couldn’t let her loneliness get in the way of her safety.

“I’ve been doing fine on my own so far.”

She felt uncomfortable under the scrutiny of agent Morse’s gaze. It had been a long time since anyone had been observing her like that, but it still brought the same bad feeling.

“You’ve been running for a long time, haven’t you?”

Since she was 7. Her time on the run wasn’t that long back then, obviously, two days at most. They had always found her within 48 hours and brought her back to the orphanage.

Until she was 11. That was the first time she managed to escape the nuns for longer. It was also the last time she saw them, because once she was found, they didn’t return her there.

Instead they brought her into one of Hydra’s facilities. It took her six years to escape.

The agent took her silence as a hint. “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell us now”, she said, retreating to the front of the jet.

“Status update, Trip?”

“At least half an hour left”, the pilot answered.

They touched down smoothly in what Daisy assumed must be their base.

“Alright”, Morse said, “someone is definitely looking forward to meeting you.”

Probably that Coulson guy she’d been talking about before.

“Tell them I look forward to taking a nap in my own damn house”, she quipped.

While Morse rolled her eyes, Simmons came up to her.

“Are you going to try and make a run for it the moment we walk out of this quinjet?”, she asked.

Daisy quirked an eyebrow. “What do you think?”

“That’s what I thought”, the agent said, not minding her sarcasm at all. “Then this is for your own good.”

Daisy saw the syringe in her hand and tried to stop it, but it was too late. She yelled in protest, her thoughts flashing back to the dream she had earlier, to all those years in Hydra’s facility, before the sedative took away all strength in her body.

The next time she woke up, Daisy’s left arm was bandaged. Her ribcage was wrapped tightly, which made it hard to move her upper body.

Probably was for the best, knowing herself, she would make it worse in a matter of minutes.

Daisy shivered. How many more times were people going to sedate her against her will? After hearing Simmons talk to her colleague, she’d figured out that the agent must be either a scientist, a doctor, or both. Was it even ethical for a doctor to stick syringes in people without their consent?

She found that she was wearing new clothes, which also made her freak out a little, though she didn’t like to admit it to herself.

To her surprise she was laying on a bed, which was actually quite comfortable. Probably to try and soften her up, before revealing whatever nefarious intentions they had for her.

Slowly sliding off the bed, she tip-toed towards the door. She contemplated quaking the lock, but she didn’t want anyone to figure out she had powers. That would bring her one step closer to being another science experiment for someone.

With nothing to lose, she tried the door handle. What kind of secret agency leaves the door of their prisoners unlocked?

Taking a look outside the door, she was glad to find the corridor empty and dark. Daisy sneaked out.

Which way to go? There was no way to know where her way out of this base was, so she’d have to go with her gut feeling.

At the moment, her gut pointed her towards the left. She followed until the end, where she rounded the corner. She continued, making her way through the shadows.

At some point, she spotted light somewhere to her right. She was curious and a quick peak couldn’t hurt, right?

Daisy glanced into the lit room and spotted Simmons and Morse. They were drinking and laughing together with a bunch of other people.

“If you tell us one more time how majestic my ex-wife is when fighting, I might have to take you out, Jemma.” Another Brit, apparently divorced from the one and only agent Morse.

“Contrary to your belief, Hunter, not everyone thinks she’s a demonic hell beast. Personally, I think she’s quite amazing.”

Daisy felt like she was peeping in on an intimate family moment. Her heart ached. She’d never had that.

Time to go. She started retreating into the dark, turning around just as someone called out her name.

_Jemma Simmons, always getting her into icky situations._

“Daisy! Come in, meet the team!”

Of course, she was in the base full of spies. Someone would have noticed her. Knowing that she probably would never be able to get out now, she turned back around and awkwardly walked into the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a hundred percent sure where this story's going yet, though I have a few ideas, but suggestions are always welcome : )  
> chapters won't be following as quickly from now on, quite obviously
> 
> thanks for the comments on the first chapter, hope you still like it!


	3. (Un)welcome

Daisy hated this. Everyone was staring at her, some friendly, some curious. Some of them looked as if they wanted her to spontaneously combust.

“With all due respect, sir”, the biggest guy in the room spoke up, “what the hell?”

She had a feeling the ‘sir’ was not directed at her.

And indeed, the middle-aged man who’d been smiling at her kindly was the one to answer. “I’m not sure what you mean, Mack. Care to elaborate on that?”

Not sure whether this mountain of muscles - apparently called Mack - was a threat, Daisy settled on letting them hash it out themselves, while she tried to disappear into the background.

“Oh, I would love to elaborate on that, sir.” The sarcasm was drooping from the guy’s voice. If Daisy hadn’t been certain this was about to become a very heated discussion about her, she would’ve found it entertaining.

“What the hell is she doing here? When you said you were seizing one of Hydra’s assets, you never told us you were bringing her here.”

Simmons crossed the room quietly to approach Daisy, while Mack’s voice kept on rising. She smiled sadly at her.

“C’mon, Daisy, maybe we should-“

Daisy brushed the scientist’s hand of her shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere, unless it’s out of this base. Besides, I wanna hear what Macky boy here has to say.”

“-can’t keep her in our base!”

Oh, this guy was certainly speaking her language. “Damn straight”, she exclaimed loudly.

Immediately all eyes were back on her, most of them confused this time.

“You agree with him? Girl, you’re something else.” There was that Trip guy again.

But what did he mean, did she agree with them? “Obviously. You kidnapped me, I want to go out.”

Someone next to her groaned, Daisy didn’t bother to look who it was.

“What? I only heard him say that you shouldn’t keep me here. It’s true. I want out.”

The big guy narrowed his eyes. “We didn’t kidnap you, we arrested you. And I’m saying you shouldn’t be in our base, because you should be locked up somewhere else.”

_What?!_

She definitely misread that situation.

“Mack”, Morse’s voice came from her left side, “we didn’t arrest her, we rescued her.”

That certainly got the guy fuming. His head whipped in his colleague’s direction. “She’s a fucking Hydra agent, Bobbi! She’s dangerous.”

Okay, now this wasn’t even close to a funny misunderstanding anymore. How dare he?

Daisy charged at him, knocking him to the floor in seconds. Pain flared up in her sides and arm, but she didn’t care. “Call me Hydra again and you’ll regret that you were ever born. I’ll show you how dangerous I am”, she spat, kneeling on top of him.

Spots danced before her eyes. Really, she should be more careful to remember when she’s injured, the way she was before. These people were already getting to her.

Probably anticipating a less than friendly reaction from Mack, Simmons gently pried her off of him, while Morse and some other guy held him back, waiting until he calmed down to help him back up on his feet.

Daisy shook herself free from Simmons’s grip. “I don’t need your help.”

She could absolutely use some. The only problem was that the scientist would never give her the help she wanted.

Simmons let out an exasperated breath. “You know what, I don’t care.”

Daisy had figured that the woman would be sick of her at some point, that was the whole point of her attitude – partially at least. But it was surprising that it took her this long.

She knew that there was nothing she could do right now anyways. The whole base knew she was up and about and everyone was very clearly on edge, so sneaking out would be near impossible. And using her powers was out of the picture.

Even if she didn’t care about giving away the fact that she had powers, with her sprained wrist and cracked ribs, it wouldn’t be worth it. And she did care about keeping it a secret. A lot.

So Daisy elected to let Simmons drag her back to her room- no, cage.

She was tired, so tired. Her fight would have to be for another day. Maybe she could turn this situation around, use it to her advantage. Daisy couldn’t remember when she’d last had a full meal, let alone a good one.

If these agents really didn’t think of her as a hostage, perhaps she could stay here for a while. It was a secret base after all and everyone around her would do their best to keep Hydra away from it.

She’d probably have no such luck, but a good night’s sleep didn’t sound bad either. Maybe she could stop running for the first time in years.

No, she wouldn’t let down her guard around these people.

They stopped at the door of her room. “Can I come in?”, the scientist asked her. Daisy shrugged. If she was gonna hang around for a while, she might as well get acquainted with her housemates.

She sat down on her bed and didn’t protest when Simmons went to sit next to her.

“Why did you save me?”

Daisy hadn’t expected that question. She didn’t really have an answer to it either. Why did she save a stranger, giving up her own freedom with that action?

“Moment of weakness, I guess. Look where it got me.”

“You know, Daisy, not everyone is a bad person. I get that you must’ve had some really bad experiences with people, but we want to help you.”

Daisy scoffed. “Help me, my ass. Tell that to Mack Hammer back there.”

“I’m sorry about him. He’s actually a really nice guy, kind of a softie even. He’s just wary about unknown variables, and you’re one hell of an unknown variable. But he’ll come around.”

She wanted to believe Simmons. The agent hadn’t lied to her yet. She seemed genuine. An all around nice person, if she had to be honest.

“I guess I did it because you seemed so out of place”, she admitted, both to herself and the scientist, “save you, I mean. I can’t figure out what a person like you would be doing with SHIELD. You don’t seem like the type that works for an illegitimate agency and goes undercover in something like Hydra.”

Simmons smiled wistfully. “I was never going to be a field agent. I studied at the science department. But Coulson recruited me and Fitz straight out of the academy and we ended up in the field anyway. It was never meant to be like this.”

“Who’s Fitz?” She’d heard the name before, on the flight earlier.

“He’s my- uhm- it’s complicated. He’s my best friend. We studied together at the academy. He did engineering whereas I did biochem. I was the one who dragged him into this life. Thought it would’ve been nice to see the world a bit. We, uh, he got hurt.”

Daisy sensed that there was a lot more to it than the few sentences Simmons just rambled, but it wasn’t her place.

“He’s alive, right?”

“Yeah, he is. He had a brain injury, though. He’s still the genius I knew, he just has a problem putting his thoughts into words. But he’s gotten a lot better. No thanks to me.”

From the way her eyes shined when speaking about him, Daisy assumed Fitz must be a good dude. But she also heard the pain, the guilt.

That was something she understood. Daisy felt herself opening up without even wanting to.µ

“I had a best friend too, once.” It hadn’t been complicated. He was all that she had and it was the same the other way around.

“What happened?”

Daisy remembered his blue eyes, his smile that only she ever saw. There hadn’t been a lot to laugh about back then, but they knew how to bring a chuckle out of the other occasionally.

“I killed him. He died and it was my fault.”

She let herself sink into the arm that Simmons put around her. She’d missed human contact.

Simmons had taken a sledgehammer and started bashing her walls with it. Daisy could feel small pieces of it crumbling and it terrified her. She wouldn’t stay for long, a week at most. Then she’d go back to her lone rangering. Ironically, that was the only way to keep herself safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know if you like it so far! (I really appreciate every single comment, whether it's to say you liked it, or something was off, or giving suggestions...)  
> from the next chapter on, there will be more interaction between Daisy and the rest of the team, it's time she gets to know them


	4. Negotiations (1)

She was going absolutely nuts in there. Admittedly, it was her own fault for staying in her room the past two days. But who can blame her?

The last time Daisy went out, she hadn’t gotten the warmest welcome. They’d called her a Nazi. Until she was at least somewhat healed, she was going to lay low.

If only she’d have her laptop. Or her phone. Anything with wi-fi, really. Her fingers ached for the feeling of a keyboard underneath their tips.

The sound of knuckles rapping against her door didn’t surprise her. She’d felt the vibrations of the footsteps coming her way.

After choosing not to answer, the person on the other side of the door swung it open anyways.

“Are you sleeping, Daisy?”, a not unkind voice asked her. Morse. She didn’t bother turning around to look at the agent.

Daisy huffed in annoyance. “Would I tell you if I was?”

“Aren’t you a real smartass.”

She was surprised to hear Morse so relaxed, so… she didn’t know how to put it. The woman had a very different attitude than when she was working, that she could say.

It made Daisy turn around to look at the tall blonde. “I am pretty smart.”

The agent snorted a little. “And an ass.”

She didn’t know what it was, but Daisy liked agent Morse. She felt an urge for something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“So Jemma told me nobody has seen you in the past two days.”

Daisy’s mind immediately started filling with potential excuses for not going out of her room, but Morse didn’t leave her the time to respond.

“I just came back from a mission, it’s late and everyone else has already eaten, so I thought maybe you and I could have dinner.”

If her stomach hadn’t been so achingly empty, she might have tried to find a way out of this. But Daisy hadn’t eaten anything substantial since Hydra captured her.

“Are you asking me out on a date?”, she joked, feigning surprise.

“Of course I’m not”, the blonde answered. “I could hear your stomach growling from the other side of the base. Figured you could use something to fill that void.”

“I’d hate to tell you this, Morse, but food won’t fill the void inside of me”, Daisy mumbled.

“Jesus, Grumpy. Have I reached a new level? Is this the part where I unlock your dark and tragic backstory?”

She scoffed at the agent. “You’re not getting in my head this easily. Unfortunately for you, the way to my heart is not through my stomach. Although, maybe if it’s really good it might win you some points.”

The woman in front of her transformed back into her more guarded self, just like Daisy was trying to do herself. She could see the blonde’s shoulders tense just a little, the corner of her mouth twitching.

This agent was just as dangerous as she was, that was for sure. Daisy decided to give in, keep the peace for now. “Let’s hope your cooking skills don’t disappoint, Morse.”

The blonde smirked.

“I’m not going to do it all by myself, you’re helping. Also”, she tipped her head to the side, adding an afterthought, “what is it with people always using my last name? I wish you’d just call me Bobbi.”

“What’s that short for? Robert?”

“I wish.”

Daisy understood the importance a name could hold for someone. She’d been calling everyone by their last names for a long time, both out of spite and to distance herself. She associated first names with friends or family and she had neither.

Already she’d gotten accustomed to call the tall blonde Morse. It sounded harsh, cold, distant. But she understood, so she would try her best to respect the agent’s wishes.

After all, Bobbi turned out to be a decent cook, who also ended up doing most of the work. The blonde had quickly discovered just how awful Daisy was making food.

“It’s not like I had a kitchen”, she tried to defend herself.

Morse- no, Bobbi looked at her incredulously. “What kind of house doesn’t have a kitchen? Where did you live?”

Daisy had often attempted to not feel embarrassed about her living situation, but failed most of the time. Now was not different.

“You got the part where I’ve been running from Hydra for years, right? It’s hard to stay in one place when you’re doing that.”

Alright, sure, she was evading the question. But she’d managed pretty well to seem composed up until now. She had a reputation to keep. Living in a van didn’t exactly scream ‘level-headed adult who has everything under control’. Not that she would judge anyone in the same position as hers.

“Where did you live, Daisy? You weren’t homeless, were you?”

Was that concern in the blonde’s voice?

“I- technically, no. I, uhm, I lived in a van.”

“A- a van? You lived in a van?”

Daisy didn’t like her tone. The woman was either about to make fun of her or feel an excessive amount of pity. And Daisy wanted neither of those things.

“It was a really nice van, alright? And it’s not like I had a choice. Couldn’t stay anywhere long enough.” Even so, she’d needed something to call her own, something to feel like home.

“Actually, I kind of miss it.” Daisy smiled wistfully. It was more than just the old, stinking vehicle that she longed for. There were things there – little, but valuable artifacts that pieced together her life’s story, however sad it may be.

“I suppose you’ll want us to get it for you?”

Daisy had almost forgotten she wasn’t alone. “Would you, though?”

Bobbi contemplated it for a moment, scrunching her eyebrows together.

“I think we could make an arrangement of some kind”, she decided.

Daisy murmured a quiet “thank you”. She wasn’t used to it, anyone doing anything for her. Not unless it was for their own benefit. And Daisy couldn’t see how having her van here would do anyone but herself any good.

They turned back to the stove and she hoped to God that their dinner was almost finished, because there was an actual war going on in her insides.

The blonde agent cut off the gas and took off the lid of the pot. “Now we just add-”

Daisy would never know what wisdom about cooking Bobbi had been about to teach her, because the man she remembered as Coulson came running into the room, interrupting her sentence.

“We have a problem, agent Morse.”

The food immediately forgotten, Bobbi followed him as he hurried back to wherever he’d come from. Not knowing what to do, eventually Daisy scampered after them.

“What’s going on, sir?”

It was clear that Morse was all business right now. Daisy could see that her shoulders were tenser than before and all playfulness had left her voice.

“They’re hacking into our system right now. Most probably Hydra.”

“Well, what do you need me for then? I don’t know nearly enough about computers to help with anything”, the blonde urged. “Don’t you have someone for this?”

Daisy decided that her involvement in this would be depending on Coulson’s next words.

“I’m sorry to say this, Bobbi, but we don’t.”

So that was decided then. She’d have to step up.

“You do, actually”, she called after them. “Me.”

Neither of them turned around. Instead they kept walking hastily. Had they not heard her?

She caught up to them, just as they rounded the corner into an office. For a moment, she was impressed. The room was filled with old, but fancy stuff. Daisy read the plaque on the desk. Not quite unexpectedly, it turned out Coulson was the director.

The two of them went around the desk to look at the computer screen. In doing so, they finally noticed that she’d followed them.

“Oh”, Coulson muttered in surprise. “Were you serious about that?”

She couldn’t believe this guy!

“Duh”, Daisy exclaimed, “I’m, like, a professional hacker. Of course I can help you.”

For a few seconds, he observed her with cold eyes. Then he turned to Bobbi. “What do you think, agent Morse? Can we trust her with this?”

The blonde shrugged her shoulders. “Can’t hurt. We’re already being attacked by Hydra at the moment, I don’t see how she can make this worse.”

She could, in several ways, but that was of no importance at the moment.

The made space for her and she sauntered over to the other side of the desk. The computer before her was certainly worth something.

“This is a lot more advanced than my laptop, that’s for sure.”

Both of the agents looked at her with annoyance clear on their faces.

“But I’ll make it work”, Daisy added quickly. “I have two conditions, though.”

Coulson gestured with his hand that she could continue. “One: my van. Morse will explain. Two: some quiet and privacy, please. I can’t work if you guys keep pacing over there.”

Daisy obviously hadn’t meant for anything like this to happen, but she wasn’t going to not take advantage of it. She still didn’t know if she could trust any of the people in this base, however friendly they may seem.

So if she was actually going to help them, the least she could do is ask for something in return.

After confirmation from the director, she started working. It took her some time to figure out the system and even when she’d done that, it wasn’t a piece of cake. Sure she’d done more difficult things in her life, but credit where credit’s due, right?

Daisy ignored the sting in her wrist while typing on. Eventually, Bobbi returned, a plate with their dinner in her hands.

Distractedly, she shook her head. “Not yet. Can’t have my attention on anything but this screen until I’ve blocked out the cyber-attack.”

It wouldn’t be beneficial to anyone to mess up now. If Hydra was able to track the location of this base, they’d find her too.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized what helping SHIELD meant. She’d been inside their systems. If anyone on their team had even a grain of common sense, they’d never fully trust her. She probably would never leave this base again.

But for now it didn’t matter if she’d be stuck with SHIELD forever. Anything was better than Hydra. She couldn’t go back to them. Ever.

Only by the time her eyes started to tear up because of staring at the screen for too long, she finished.

Sometime during the past half hour, Coulson had returned to his office to watch over her. Daisy hummed quietly before pushing one last button with a dramatic wave of her hand.

“All done. For now.”

Coulson pursed his lips together and nodded in appreciation.

“You certainly have a flair for theatrics”, he remarked.

Daisy looked around and gestured at all the old gadgets scattered throughout the room. “Something tells me you do too.”

The director chuckled. “I wouldn’t link it to my collectibles, but yes, I think I do, actually.”

He looked her over once more, this time with a somewhat less grim expression in his eyes. “Let’s talk.”

Daisy had been expecting a conversation like this ever since Morse - no, Bobbi, damn it – told her someone wanted to speak with her. She hadn’t been dreading it, per se, but she did now.

Whatever had been her options before, they must have changed now that she did what she did.

“I’ve been wondering who you are, Daisy Johnson. Asset to Hydra – which, by the way, you seem to not want any part of. Highly skilled in martial arts. An excellent hacker, it turns out. And apparently also a ghost.”

_Don’t forget the superpowers._

She wanted to say it, but refrained. It would still be best that that side of her stayed hidden, even if they’d just found out her other skills.

Trying to play dumb, she tilted her head in question at the word ghost.

“I’ve been scouring the internet for you. Any mentions of your old name, your current one, pictures of your face. But everything tells me you don’t exist.”

“Yet here I am”, Daisy drawled sarcastically.

The corners of Coulson mouths curled upwards. “Yet here you are.”

He stood and walked up to her, stopping at a few feet away to start pacing.

“I’ve been trying to figure you out. At least now I know why there’s no record of you anywhere. Probably did that all by yourself.”

He was right with that one. The moment she’d got away from the facility she’d been kept in, she’d erased herself from existence in any way she saw possible. It’s the only thing that kept Hydra away all these years.

Coulson must’ve figured that she wasn’t going to open up anytime soon, so he changed subject.

“Any idea how they were able to hack into our systems?”

Other than the fact that Hydra probably had a lot more funding, she had a few theories. “Knowing that two of your agents were undercover in one of their facilities, I’m guessing that has something to do with it. Did either of them take anything?”

With a frown on his face, she could practically see the gears turning in his head. “We should ask Bobbi.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m hungry.”

“Ah, that’s right, you didn’t get to eat anything. My bad.” Coulson smiled pensively. “Actually, your bad too. You could’ve come out of your room if you were hungry.”

Daisy glared at the director, but followed him anyway.

In the kitchen they found the tall agent, sitting at the table. Daisy saw two plates filled with food. Bobbi hadn’t eaten yet, she’d waited for her. It warmed Daisy’s heart.

But that wasn’t the most important reason they came.

“Bobbi, did you take anything from Hydra’s facility?”, Coulson questioned with a stiff voice.

“Just Simmons’s hard drive, why?”

That was the exact thing Daisy had expected and feared.

“Did someone plug it in?”

Morse scrunched her eyebrows together. “I gave it to Fitz to look over. He might have.”

Coulson sighed deeply. “Damn it. I thought Fitz was getting better. But he either missed it completely or wasn’t careful. Both are bad things.”

Daisy felt bad for the guy. She hadn’t met him, but Simmons had told her about his brain injury and how smart he actually had been and still was.

“Don’t put it on him, it’s not his fault”, she said. “Brain injury or not, he would’ve missed it anyway. It’s almost impossible to detect.”

Both agents looked at her in question.

“How do you know it then?”

Daisy decided she’d just come out with it already. They’d find out anyway.

“They taught me how to do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> halfway through the last exams of my high school career, I'm on the edge of a breakdown, the nostalgia is killing me and I'm trying not to think about how in less than a month I'll see everyone for probably the last time ever.  
> so updating is going a bit slow at the moment, as I'm very very distracted by either studying or crying ; )
> 
> but more will follow soon : )  
> don't forget to leave a comment to let me know what you think!


	5. Negotiations (2)

Both Coulson and Bobbi had stayed unexpectedly quiet. Their staring was so intense, Daisy was sure that even a blind person would have felt their gaze. They were assessing her, wondering if this meant the exact thing they had probably been afraid of.

That was the question now: whether she was the Hydra infiltrator that various of their agents thought her to be. If it had been that guy, Mack, from two days ago, he’d probably already have dragged her to a cell. Or tried to.

But she could see that Coulson was curious. He would want to hear her story first, execute later. Bobbi would probably give her the benefit of the doubt for now, judging by the lack of hostility on her face.

Still, she’d better give them a good explanation, before they actually started thinking about execution, or worse – wondering which of their cells was the smallest, darkest and coldest.

Daisy started talking, trying to keep her voice in a light, chipper tone. What she was going to tell them was not a happy story. “I wasn’t there by free will. Heck, back then I didn’t even know they were Hydra. I didn’t know who they were, why they were doing what they were doing.”

Though she couldn’t decipher why, it felt good to finally be honest to someone, to tell her truth. She’d never had anyone that she could talk to about her awful childhood, but she’d also never thought she needed someone for that.

“When I was a baby, just a few weeks, maybe a few months old, they took me. Put me in the foster system, because they had no use for an infant. I never stayed anywhere longer than a couple of weeks, sometimes a month or two. God forbid I called someone mom. Next day I’d be sent back. The nuns at the orphanage were my only constant.”

Daisy knew now that it hadn’t been her fault. She remembered looking into the Brody’s and finding out they had wanted to adopt her. That they had been denied and she’d been forced out of their house.

Perhaps she should’ve noticed it. Some of the families had been extremely nice and loving, but somehow she always ended up back with the scary nuns. As a kid, she had never noticed the teary goodbyes. Hadn’t seen how much it pained some of the parents to let her go.

She’d only known how much it hurt that she’d never have a real family.

“I ran away”, she continued, “more times than I could count on my tiny little fingers at the moment. First time I was seven. Last time I was eleven. Hydra must have decided I was old enough at that point because I never saw the nuns again.

They picked me up, took me to some facility in northern Europe. Their agents taught me to fight, their scientists experimented on me. I never figured out what they were trying to accomplish.”

Lie. The scientists had never found what they were looking for, but she had. They hadn’t understood her powers, didn’t know that they had no way to unlock them by themselves. They didn’t even know the term ‘inhuman’.

“Where you the only one?”

Coulson had interrupted her for the first time since she started her story. He looked concerned, the frown on his face evident.

“No, I- uh, I wasn’t alone. There were others, mostly younger than me. There was one other person who was around my age. We looked after the small ones, bonded over our miserable lives.”

It hurt to talk about him, still. But she couldn’t stop in the middle of her story and she couldn’t leave him out of it, as if he wasn’t there. As if he hadn’t existed.

“They let me choose something to study, a certain skill to learn. I chose computer sciences, in the hope that it would help us someday. The other guy, he chose medical. Thought it would come in handy. All he ever wanted to do was help people.

Hydra taught me a lot about hacking, showed me their dirty tricks, like the hard drive. I learned to fight so that even if their experiments would never work out, I’d be a perfect soldier for them. I guess it worked out.”

Just not for the organization itself. It had come back to bite them in the ass when she was old and brave enough to retaliate.

“I worked my ass off, found out ways to get the other kids out. They knew, obviously. They punished me for it, every time. By the time I was fifteen, I’d finally succeeded in getting _him_ out too. Kept us two for last. He was never much of a fighter, but he’d look after me when they were done with my so-called punishments. I’ve never know for sure if he actually got away for good. It took me two years to get back into shape and escape on my own. I haven’t stopped running since.”

There was more to it, evidently. A lot had happened between escaping Hydra and being captured by them again. In fact, she did know that he made it out alright. But telling them that, meant she had to tell them about finding her parents, about her powers. How she got him killed. And that was not happening.

Daisy had appreciated the silence from the other side of the table. They’d let her talk on her own pace, waited patiently for her to finish her story. That was nice.

But she could see the pity starting to form in their eyes. She didn’t want that. It made her feel weak.

“Stop looking at me like that”, she groaned. “I’m sure you’ve all been through shit. I’m not some small, helpless kid in the foster system anymore.”

Coulson smiled at her, but the sadness in his eyes remained. “It’s true, we’ve been through a lot. I died, for example.”

Daisy wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the story behind that.

“I know an experience like that doesn’t leave you unscathed. And that’s okay. It would be weird if you were completely fine after all that. It would be inhuman.”

Oh, he had no idea.

“So”, she drawled out, trying to shake off the awkward feeling she’d gotten. “Now that you know my tragic back story and know that I’m not one of the bad guys, am I free to go? Because as good as this food is, Morse, it won’t make me stay.”

The blonde shrugged. “One can try.”

“To answer your question”, Coulson replied, “I’m afraid you cannot. We can’t really trust you or that Hydra won’t go looking for you again. You staying here would be beneficial to both of us. Also, I have an offer that I think you might not want to refuse.”

Now he had her attention. She couldn’t wait to prove him wrong. “What’s that?”

“I want you to help us take down Hydra.”

Maybe the guy hadn’t been wrong after all. Taking down Hydra might not have been her top priority, being by her lonesome and all that, but it sure could earn a place on her bucket list.

“I’m in.” She had a score to settle. But after that, she was getting out of here. Daisy had no desire for a permanent spot on his team.

Smiling not so humbly, Coulson drew his chair back and stood up. He looked at her half-empty plate.

“Eat up and go to sleep. We’ve got a lot to discuss in the morning.

“What did you put in that food, Morse?”, Daisy grumbled to herself. She stretched her arms and rubbed her eyes.

Last night, when she finally could enjoy the food, it had sunk in that it was the first decent meal she’d eaten in a very long time. Luckily for her, they’d made a lot, so she had taken some extras.

After thanking the blonde agent once more for dinner, she’d stumbled back to her room. With her stomach filled comfortably, it hadn’t taken her long to pass out.

Now that she woke up, it felt like she’d been asleep for days. It wasn’t a bad feeling, but the idea that she’d left her guard down like that left a sour taste.

Daisy checked the door. Right, she hadn’t even locked it last night. Damn Bobbi Morse with her amazing food.

Her eyes fell upon a stack of neatly folded clothes. Someone must have come in while she was sleeping. Though the sentiment of bringing her clean clothes was nice, the fact that someone had been there during her sleep was unsettling.

She quickly forgot that feeling when she spotted another form next to the stack. Her leather jacket!

It was her favorite and she hadn’t even stolen that one. It had been a present from Lincoln. When she’d first seen it, she had ridiculed him for it, until she had realized that he hadn’t gotten it for himself. Leather hadn’t really been his thing.

Daisy was happy to find out that the clothes didn’t only consist of sweatpants and a hoody this time. Whoever had been there, had been considerate enough to leave her some actual jeans and a nice shirt. All black. They really did know her already.

She put on the hoody anyway and left for Coulson’s office. It was probably very late and she’d had a good meal yesterday, so breakfast wouldn’t be for today.

With her good hand, she knocked on the door. After hearing a muffled affirmation, she swung the door open to see Coulson who wasn’t alone.

“So nice of you to finally join us, Daisy.”

He was mocking her, she could hear it in his voice.

“In my defense, I’m ninety percent sure that agent Morse put a sedative in my food.”

“That’s something you’ll have to ask her yourself.”

Coulson gestured to the woman on his left side. “Meet Melinda May, my right hand. Thanks to your, uhm, late arrival, I’ve already talked her through the basics of what you told Bobbi and me yesterday.”

Of course he did. Did Daisy really expect that she could tell people on her own terms? Specifically people that she at least knew. Because she had never seen this woman before.

Her stomach chose the silence that followed as the perfect moment to growling. Already?

“Did you have breakfast, Daisy?”

She shook her head. “I had a nice, big dinner yesterday, so I thought…” She trailed off, not really knowing what she was going to say.

“So you what? You thought that having one good meal meant you weren’t going to get another? You’re allowed to eat, Daisy.”

Although he sounded exasperated, there was a certain softness to his tone. From the corner of her eyes, she saw May’s expression changing just a little bit. Most people wouldn’t have noticed it, but Daisy had been trained for years.

She had to admit she was just a tad proud of herself. The woman was obviously as closed of as one could be and Daisy had already picked up on something during their first meeting.

“On to business”, Coulson continued, having shaken himself out of his apparent concern. “Agent May will be your SO or superior officer. She’s going to mentor you into becoming an agent of SHIELD.”

“Wait, what?”, Daisy exclaimed in confusion. “I never said I was going to be an agent! Only that I would help you take down Hydra.”

The director shrugged. “I can’t just put you on my team like that. You’re going to need a badge before I’ll allow you to help us.”

“Well, still, you can’t-I”, Daisy stammered. “I don’t need training. I told you yesterday, I’ve been trained since I was eleven. I can handle myself just fine.”

None of it seemed to get through to Coulson. He merely shrugged again. “I know you can. But she’s still going to train you. Not only to fight, but to be a proper agent. That includes more than just being able to beat up people.”

Daisy couldn’t argue with that last part. However, she still hadn’t consented to become an agent.

“Now, off you go, get yourself something to eat”, Coulson added before turning back to his computer.

“Hey, you said we had a lot to discuss?” Daisy knew she was coming very close to whining, but she didn’t care at the moment. She was not just going to agree with everything the guy said.

“And we did.”

“This is not discussing anything, this is you telling me, like, one thing and then sending me away again. I never agreed to anyth-”

“Bye, Daisy”, Coulson interrupted, before she could even finish her sentence.

Agent May was looking at her intensely, seemingly ready to take her out of the room herself if she didn’t comply. And the woman looked more than capable, so Daisy decided to let it roll of her back for now.

Her and Coulson would have some words another time, when he didn’t have his bodyguard with him.

Daisy walked towards the kitchen, where she found two guys she didn’t know yet. Unlike the first time that happened, she didn’t try to turn back now.

It seemed like she was going to be there for a while, so she might as well socialize a bit.

The one to the right had his back turned to her, so he didn’t notice her, but the other one did so immediately.

“Look who we have here, Fitz”, he exclaimed loudly, “the one and only Daisy Johnson.”

She recognized his voice and his British accent, but couldn’t quite figure out from where. She hadn’t met him already, had she?

While the other guy, apparently Fitz, turned around, her put out his hand towards her. “Lance Hunter, ex-SAS, mercenary, temporary agent of SHIELD and ex-husband-“

“Of the demonic hell beast that cooked me dinner last night”, she continued for him, while shaking his hand. She’d just realized where she recognized his voice from.

“She’s actually not that demonic”, Daisy added. “She’s quite the cook too.”

If Hunter was frustrated, it didn’t show. “Just wait until I make you something. I’ve been told my mushroom soup is delicious”, he said, bringing his fingers to his lips.

Daisy chuckled a little, turning towards the other guy.

“Leo- Leopold Fitz”, he introduced himself. She wasn’t sure if the stutter had anything to do with his injury or if he was just really nervous.

She liked to think she looked very intimidating. Unfortunately her stomach thought otherwise, as it growled loudly once more.

“Do you want a- a biscuit?” This time she noticed his Scottish accent. Was anyone here just plain American?

She quickly scratched that mental note. Daisy herself wasn’t even fully American, so what did she have to say?

While she accepted the cookies Fitz offered, Hunter resumed his storytelling. Figuring she had nothing better to do, she sat on the counter and listened.

And although she would never admit to it later on, perhaps she even laughed a little when Hunter made a terrible joke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do you guys like kinda short chapters like this or would you prefer longer chapters (though they would obviously take more time to write)? let me know what you think!  
> thanks for the few comments I've gotten over time, I love to read them and I appreciate every single one of them!!!  
> have a lovely week!


	6. First Day of Work

“You’re going on a mission.”

Daisy was surprised to hear those words from Coulson so soon, though she wasn’t sure whether it was pleasantly so or not.

Not long after he had practically ordered her to become one of his agents, they’d had another conversation. Daisy had stated that she was not interested in such a position.

_Giving me mandatory training for a job I didn’t sign up for? My last employer ended up regretting that decision._

She hadn’t been able to make it sound as snarky as she meant it, but it had still gotten the message across. Coulson had said he realized his mistake and instead offered her a temporary job as a mercenary.

But even if their talk had cleared up some things, not all of the tension had dissolved. Daisy was still pretty pissed and Coulson still hadn’t gotten her back her van, unlike he’d promised her. Every time she mentioned it, he seemed to be more tired. Though that could also apply to simply every day.

“Word has gotten out that Hydra is after an artifact in a storage facility. You’ll be going with the team.”

“Why?”, she asked him. “Why me?”

“Two reasons”, Coulson answered. “One: I want to test your loyalties, see how you work together in a team and whether you’ll run the first chance you get. Two: I need the manpower. Or you know, womanpower.”

Although he tried to lighten the mood with a joke, he didn’t seem too enthusiastic to admit to the second reason, which was understandable. The situation must be dire for him to require his newest and most unreliable asset, if she said so herself.

“What’s going to happen if I do try to run?” She tried to hide her gloomy mood by talking with a chipper tone, although she had no idea if she was fooling anyone other than herself.

“Let’s just say that it’s going to be very hard. We’ll be tracking you wherever you go and if you come even two feet within the range of a technological device, it will be disabled automatically. No access to any computers for as long as we want.”

Basically a death sentence for a hacker on the run with a chip under their skin. They’d really thought this through.

Maybe it was a little unnecessary at the moment. Daisy had actually almost enjoyed her stay here. She had a dry bed, warm food and a lot of the agents were nice people. Her training with Melinda May had been less fun. The agent wasn’t in the least amicable and although she was quite a formidable opponent, Daisy did not enjoy the bruises all too much. So, the key word was almost.

The biggest reason that she wouldn’t run on her first assignment was after all another. She’d had a thirst for vendetta against Hydra for a long time and this was the first time she’d been this close. An allegiance with SHIELD was the greatest chance she’d ever get at this.

She’d wiped out most of the branch that ran the facility that had held her for years. It had never been enough.

So, to be perfectly honest, there was no reason for Daisy to run from SHIELD. Not until every last member of Hydra had been crossed off. She’d just have to deal with this little discomfort.

“Alright”, she said confidently, “who’s going to put the chip inside?”

Coulson merely smiled mysteriously. “Who said anything about a chip?”

Daisy rubbed her wrist, which now had a metal bracelet around it. She considered breaking it with her powers, but like she said before: she has no reason to run. That also meant no reason to take of the damn thing.

 _Remember, Daisy, no stunts. Nothing to endanger your team or yourself._ She tried to keep Coulson's last words to her in mind, while they snuck onto the premises. Daisy wasn't known to play safe. While being held in the HYDRA facility, she'd often provoked the guards and trainers to lead their attention away from younger kids. Sometimes it worked and although it left her broken bones that would never properly heal again, it also gave her a feeling of usefulness.

Those times were over, though, and her self-worth was long gone. All she had left to live for was her one goal.

And that was exactly what required her to be careful now. So she would oblige.

In front of her walked Hunter and another agent, while May was following closely behind Daisy's back. When they entered the warehouse room, they split up in two groups and took off to opposite sides of the immense racks full of boxes.

May signaled to her that they would stay back to back while they both took a side of the corridor. Daisy let her eyes go over the boxes, looking for the magical number. 084. They'd only vaguely explained to her what it meant: 'an object of unknown origin'. Well, with such a broad description, until a year or two ago, one could have said she was one of those 084's herself. What madness that would've been.

Every now and then, she turned to look over her shoulder to see whether May had found something, but they quickly reached the end of the corridor, without having found anything. The same thing went on for the next three corridors. And then hell broke loose.

Daisy could hear the doors being blown off their hinges and felt ripples run through her bones. HYDRA had arrived. And what HYDRA seemed to like doing the most, was killing and maiming, so gunshots followed immediately after the blasts. She followed agent May into the shadows. Soon, the shooting stopped, leaving dead silence - except for the ringing in her ears. Daisy stayed still and kept her breathing under control. This was not the time to make their position knows by making unnecessary sounds. After a few moments she heard someone call out orders.

They were probably going to start looking systematically through all the corridors, which means that either they would have to find a way to climb the walls or the racks, or that they would be discovered in a very short time.

Apparently, May decided on neither, because she started to move away from their hiding spot. She put her finger against her lips and motioned Daisy to stay right where she was. Then she took off.

But Daisy felt herself getting pulled to the other side of the warehouse. And she wasn't going to just sit by. Coulson had told her not to endanger her team. Leaving them to their own devices was exactly that. So she tiptoed towards one of the corridors. And sure enough, there was the other agent - what was her name, Hartley? The woman looked up for a moment, but then she directed her gaze back to the box in front of her. Even from this far, Daisy could see the symbols on the object. She could feel it.

"No!", she cried out. "Don't touch it!"

It didn't matter. Hartley had already grabbed the asset. A Diviner. The woman was staring in horror as a grey color started to spread from her hand to the rest of her arm.

 _Of all things the asset could've been,_ Daisy thought _, it just had to be a Diviner._

She was alerted by the footsteps coming closer. Fuck. They had to get out of there. Or rather, they had to get the Diviner out. Daisy sprinted towards the agent and rushed her towards the exit. The woman was pretty out of it, but given the circumstances, she could be forgiven.

"Get out of here, I'll cover you."

Hartley didn't budge. She repeated her words with more urgency and this time the agent nodded. The sight of her arm sickened Daisy. How was she going to survive that? "You'll have to cut it off", she implored. "And quickly. You don't have much time left." Better to tell it how it is, she guessed.

On the count of three, Hartley ran towards the hole HYDRA had blown into the wall, but Daisy didn't cover her as promised. Instead she went towards the footsteps and cried out again. She spouted some nonsense, until she was sure she had their attention. And then she turned the corner.

Bullets came at her from every side, but Daisy diverted their paths with her powers. Might as well use them while nobody was watching. No one who would live to tell the tale, anyway. Most of the bullets went past the HYDRA men - even she wasn't powerful enough to direct all of them towards her opponents. Some of the men did fall down either in agony or dead. Their colleagues looked in shock at her.

"What the hell?", she heard someone mutter. "One of those freaks", another mumbled.

Now, Daisy would like to lie and say she didn't get angry that easily, but that would be useless. And the word 'freak' brought back awful memories. She brought her hand up towards the source and snapped his spine. The sounds of his bones shattering could be heard by all of them. It raised the hairs on her the back of her neck.

"Who's next?"

Daisy wasn't sure if it was her own heartbeat she was hearing, but either way it was beating fast. Her arms were starting to hurt. She hadn't used her powers in a long time, so it was only a faint throbbing, not the torment she'd experienced before. But she couldn't explain the bruises to anyone, most of all not agent May. 

_Her mentor!_ Daisy had completely forgotten about her. What if she'd seen her use her powers? It didn't matter, all she could do now was make sure May would not get another chance to witness it.

She took her gun from the holster on her hip, just as one of the men tried to make a move. She shot one, two, three bullets into his soon dead body. Before the others could try the same thing, she shot three more men. From the corner of her vision, she could see the last one pointing his gun at her head. She turned around, but the sound of two other gunshots already filled her ears. The barrel of his gun was no longer pointing at her face, which could explain why she was still alive and standing. But looking down at her body in confusion, she couldn't find any blood. Daisy looked back up at the man. He put a hand up on his chest, which came away covered in red. Then his knees buckled and he fell flat on his face.

Where the man had once stood, was Melinda May standing now. Daisy's mentor looked at her suspiciously and Daisy feared the woman _had_ seen her powers after all. But then she closed the distance between the two of them. "Are you hurt?"

"Uh, I", Daisy stammered. "No."

"Good."

The agent turned away from her and motioned for Daisy to follow. As they hurried out of the building, May started questioning her about what happened.

Daisy told her that Hartley got out with the asset, but that she might be dead already. May added her part of the story: that Hunter also got out and that Idaho - the agent that had been waiting in a getaway car - must have driven off with them.

She wondered how they would get away now that their way out of there was already gone. Her question wasn't left unanswered for very long.

The moment they were out of the vicinity of the building, agent May took out a radio and asked for extraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very sorry that it took me this long to update, but my summer was really busy and the start of the academic year was also time-consuming. Now that I've settled into routine, I've started writing on this story again.  
> Anyways, I have one question for you, my readers: does my writing still feel the same? It's been quite some time since I wrote the previous chapters and I wouldn't want to deviate too much from the rest of the story...  
> A big thank you to everyone who decides to stick with me and my story despite the big hiatus! Even though the serie has ended, my love for it will not!!


	7. Revelations

Daisy sagged down in her seat. They'd just had direct contact with Coulson, who told them the news. Hartley didn't make it, nor did Idaho. Hunter was gone, as was Hartley's arm. She felt responsible for what happened to them.

If she'd been there faster instead of hiding away like a coward, Hartley wouldn't have touched the damn thing. And Daisy had said she would cover her. But her own ego, her lust for vengeance had come in the way. At the time being, she herself had thought it was a selfless act. But it wasn't. No, she had wanted to kill those men. It had been pure bloodlust.

Now half of her team was dead. If she'd gone with Hartley, she'd been able to protect them with her powers. And Hunter.

Even if for him there weren't really any strings attached, when it came to this job, she didn't think he'd just run of with the asset they were supposed to bring in. Something happened to him. She'd just started to take a liking to him. He was probably one of the only people that came close to being her friend. She really didn't have a lot of those.

Daisy had known this would happen. There's a reason she didn't want to get attached to anyone. But these people, they got under her skin. And now she'd have to bear the consequences.

Two hours later, she'd changed back into her sweats and was down in one of the vaults with Simmons and Bobbi. Daisy had asked Coulson to give her something to do and he was happy to oblige. They had to research the Diviner, find out why HYDRA was after it.

Of course Daisy knew what the object was, but she couldn't give herself away. And she was very curious herself what they would find.

So far, they hadn't found anything interesting. There had been a lot of 084's back in the day. They were looking through the files in reverse chronological order and somehow that seemed like the wrong choice. Nothing they found resembled the object they were looking for even a little bit.

Daisy huffed. "I'm thirsty."

Simmons shrugged her shoulders. "Get something to drink", she said without looking up from the paper.

That was probably a better idea than complaining about it. Daisy excused herself from the room and went in search of something cool and liquid. Preferably with a certain percentage of alcohol. It had been a long day.

On her way to the kitchen, she noticed some commotion coming from the director's office. She'd always been a curious person, and she felt like she'd earned to know what that was about.

Even from a distance, she recognized Hunter's voice. They noticed her when she arrived at the open door.

"You're alive", she remarked.

"Such keen senses, this one", Hunter said sarcastically. "Hello to you too."

Daisy hid how relieved she was very successfully, if she said so herself.

"What happened?", she asked him.

He looked at her apologetically. "I don't think I can tell you-"

Coulson interrupted her. "After the car crash he was picked up by general Talbot, head of a government branch. They tried to hire him, but he refused, right?"

Daisy and Hunter turned their heads towards him, with a comical look of confusion on their faces. "But you just said I couldn't tell her anything!", the latter complained.

Coulson smiled enigmatically. "She's earned a little bit of trust, don't you think?"

He put his hand next to his mouth and leaned towards Hunter. "Besides, I think she was worried about you."

God, what imbeciles she was working with. "I'm standing right here, you know."

"We know", they answered, weirdly in synch.

With a beer in her hand she came back into the vault. "You know, I wish I'd found something stronger, but I was distracted."

Neither Simmons nor Bobbi looked up. "What happened?"

"That's what I asked Hunter when I ran into him."

Now she had their attention. While she told them the story, Daisy could see that, while she may have divorced him, Bobbi clearly still cared about Hunter. It was kind of cute.

"But he doesn't have the Obelisk either?", Simmons asked.

The Obelisk? Since when did they call it the Obelisk? Oh wait, yeah, she hadn't told anyone that she knew what it was, so they obviously didn't know the real name yet. That was something they probably wouldn't even find in any of these files.

Daisy shook her head. "He didn't even see who took it."

Bobbi made a face. "Well, since that doesn't mean we don't have to find this damn file, I'd say to get on with it."

She was obviously right, so they resumed searching through all of the boxes with folders. Minutes became hours and Daisy was ready to give up and get something stronger to drink. But then, suddenly, Simmons let out a small cry of victory. She had to admit that the scientist pumping her fist in the air so giddily, was a really cute sight.

Daisy gave herself a mental slap in the face. _We all know you like dorks, so don't get attached to this one now._

Bobbi had already rushed towards Simmons to look at the file and Daisy joined them.

There it was, the 084 they had been looking for. Attached to it was a file on one of HYDRA's heads. She couldn’t read his name from this far, but she recognized the man on the picture immediately.

Daisy grabbed the file from Simmons’s hands and opened it. She remembered all the times he’d visited the facility. If the guards and trainers were bad, he was worse. A lot worse. Sure, the other ones regarded the kids they held as slaves. But the boss saw them as nothing more than a subject of experimentation. Sometimes when he visited, one of them was called to his office. None of them ever returned.

“Are you okay, Daisy?” A hand on her shoulder startled her and she froze. She fought the urge to lash out as she let the question get through to her.

She tried to visibly relax her body. “Yeah, fine, why?”, she tried to reply casually.

Morse appeared in front of her, looking concerned, although there was a hint of a smile on her face. “You’re not fooling anyone.”

The agent was right. After years of training, Daisy thought she had mastered control over her body, but apparently that went out of the window when something painful from her past was brought up. Her breathing was too fast, too erratic and her hands were trembling. She’d have to work on that.

“Okay”, she admitted, taking a deep breath, “you’re right. I’m not okay. This guy, I know him.”

The two agents shared a look before turning back to watch her patiently, their faces deadly serious but gentle. Daisy cringed internally. Pity was not something she liked to get and these two had loads of it, even if they didn’t show it openly.

“He was the boss of the facility I grew up in. He wasn’t there very often, but all of our lives got worse the moment he arrived, every time he came to visit. He liked to experiment on us.”

She grimaced. The story wasn’t pretty. After a moment of consideration, she decided that it was better if Morse and Simmons didn’t know, both for her and for them.

“You don’t want to know”, she told the women in a nonchalant tone.

Simmons looked like she wanted to object, but Morse nodded in understanding. “I think we’ve heard enough.” _You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to_ , was only silently implied.

But the scientist was still deep in thought, it seemed. She mumbled something neither of them understood.

“What was that?”, Bobbi asked, eyebrows raised.

“Discovery requires experimentation.”

And just as Daisy had finally composed herself, she lost her cool again. “How do you know that?”, she hissed at Simmons while recoiling.

“Oh, that’s easy”, the agent said, “Whitehall was our boss at HYDRA.”

Bobbi looked at her colleague disapprovingly. “Jemma.”

Daisy couldn’t believe her ears. If Simmons was telling the truth, Whitehall was the one who ordered her capture. And she hadn’t even known she was in his hold again.

Simmons looked at Bobbi apologetically. “I’m sorry, but she has the right to know who had her kidnapped.”

Daisy clenched her fists and directed her glare at the blonde. “Got an explanation why you didn’t want me to know that, Morse?”

The agent put her hands up in the air in defense and started talking calmly. “I did want you to know, just not right now. You’re more than a little worked up and – if you hadn’t noticed – it’s a little scary. I was worried.”

She opened her mouth to retaliate, but Morse was faster. “Not for us. I was worried for _you_. Once again, you’ve been acting pretty upset and I didn’t want you to act erratically and do something stupid that’ll get you hurt.”

That actually made a lot of sense to Daisy, now that she was hearing it. There was only one thing that didn’t add up.

“You really care enough to worry about me getting hurt?”

The agent gave her a look as if to say _duh, obviously_. “Yeah.”

“But you’ve only known me for barely three weeks.”

“Also true.”

“Then why?” Daisy was starting to sound a little exasperated. Morse was confusing her and apparently didn’t feel like helping her understand.

“Because you’re just a girl and you’ve got a lot of trauma and we took you under our wings.”

Morse smiled hesitantly. "Well, yeah, wasn't that obvious?" Daisy looked at Simmons, who looked back awkwardly. She could see that the scientist agreed with the other woman. She wanted to get angry at them, but felt that she was unable to. The fact that they wanted to take care of her was actually sweet. It just also really hurt her ego. She wasn't ready to accept that this was the reason for them recruiting her.

"I don't need any of you to protect me", she said, making it a point to glare at them with as much frustration as she could muster. Maybe she was getting soft, but the least she could do was hide it.

"Oh, Daisy", Simmons started saying in that gentle and very British tone of hers, "we know that. But we want to."

The brunette looked away for a moment, perhaps wondering how it had happened that she felt so responsible for this girl that was barely younger than her. Either way, Daisy felt less comfortable with every passing moment. She pushed away whatever it was that she was feeling and turned her attention back to the file in her hands.

What they knew already about Whitehall was this: he was a head of HYDRA, led a science division of the organization that had held kids prisoner a few years back, to experiment on them and train them to be their agents or even soldiers. To add to that, he was still looking as fresh as ever, leading a similar facility that had taken her again, probably because she was one of the kids mentioned before. And now he had been looking for a Diviner - or Obelisk, for the others - and found it.

That wasn't enough. They needed a motive for his actions. Daisy started reading the text on the file. It didn't take long for her to be confused.

"It says here that he was captured by the SSR in 1945. During an operation led by Peggy Carter." In a second, Simmons was looking over her shoulder excitedly.

"Peggy Carter, you say?"

Bobbi rolled her eyes at the overly eager scientist. "Keep it in your pants, Jemma. I think the interesting part here is that the guy was alive in the forties. And I don't know about you, but I don't know anyone who was alive during World War Two and still looks like the average middle aged businessman."

Daisy read it over again twice before something else caught her attention. "Wait", she started hesitantly, "didn't you two say his name was Whitehall?"

"Uh, yes", Simmons said, "why?"

"Because here it says that his name is Reinhardt. Werner Reinhardt."

Apart from the confusion about the different aliases, she knew the name meant something to her. She just couldn't figure out from where she recognized it. Daisy quickly started reading further until she found what she was looking for. When he'd been captured by Peggy Carter, he'd been found with a woman that he held captive. He'd been trying to get her to touch the 084. The woman was Chinese. Daisy knew this story.


	8. Time for a little truth

Daisy had to sit down before she'd collapse. With her head in her hands, she let all the memories race through her mind. The monster who'd done that to her mother, he would feel her wrath. Soon his head would roll. And with that thought, for the first time that day, she felt completely clear.

She knew what she had to do. All that was needed was to play along with Coulson for a little longer, until they'd find Whitehall. And when she'd finally get close to him, she would take her sweet time to avenge her mother. "I'm tired", she mumbled to the others as she excused herself from the room.

"Good morning, Daisy", Coulson greeted her as she entered his office a few days later. "I have some work for you."

"What's up, boss?", she asked cheerfully.

Lately the atmosphere at the base had become lighter, more pleasant, especially between her and the director. It was as if he'd started having a certain amount of trust in her, which was enough to enjoy an amicable chat. Daisy wasn't sure how to feel about that, though it seemed to have a certain effect on her. Every now and then, when Coulson told her one of his trademark dad jokes, her stomach would get all twisted. Right now, though, he was handing her a file.

"I want you to research these images. Find out what they are, their meaning, their origin, anything and everything there is to discover."

"Copy that."

To her great joy, they'd finally given her a computer, although she'd preferred a desktop over a laptop. Sure, it was a lot easier to carry around, but the capacities also were a lot less satisfactory. It would have to do for now.

Once she'd settled down in the common room, she opened the file to take a first look at the symbols in question. As she let her eyes fall on the image, she sighed deeply. She knew those marks. She'd seen them before, when her mother had showed her ancient documents from their ancestors. They were the same ones that could be seen on the Diviner. But most importantly, she knew what they meant, even if only partially.

Taking all of that in for a moment, she wondered what she would do with her knowledge.

It was getting harder every day to hide her secrets. She was starting to have trouble controlling the vibrations from time to time and she couldn't release the tension anywhere, not without having a couple dozen agents run amok because something was shaking the base. Maybe now that they started to trust her a little bit more, they wouldn't react as badly as she'd thought before. Maybe they'd just accept her for what she was. She could at least give it a try.

"Back so soon?", Coulson asked while she walked back into his office. "I knew you were good, but are you that good?"

Daisy laughed, but it was humorless. "I didn't do any research."

The director merely looked at her questioningly. He was waiting for her to explain on her own.

"I didn't have to", she continued, taking a deep breath. "I know these markings. They're not symbols."

He looked away from her, frowning at his desk. She could see in his eyes that it was something personal to him.

"So what are they then?", he asked sceptically.

"It's a map." Daisy ignored Coulson's fidgeting. "Actually, it's more something of a blueprint."

The man in front of her had never looked the way he did now, as if someone had finally been able to explain the meaning behind life to him. As if someone had solved a mystery that had vexed the world for millennia. His eyes shot towards the wall behind him, before he composed himself again.

"A blueprint of what?"

Daisy decided to wait no longer to drop the bomb.

"Of a city. An alien city."

The director stood up nervously, glancing once more at the wall.

“What’s behind that wall, sir?”, Daisy asked, no longer able to contain her curiosity.

“What?”, Coulson uttered, feigning surprise. “Why would there be anything behind it?”

She’d almost believed in his confusion, if it wasn’t for the fact that she could feel it in the vibrations of the room that there was something hidden behind the wall.

“Look around you, this whole room is old. But that wall? It’s brand new, not a scratch. It doesn’t match up. If you recently had to replace it for some reason, that wouldn’t really be suspicious. You would've just told me so. But you didn't and what's more, you've been looking at it weirdly this whole time. Or something is behind there and you don’t want me to know what. And I don’t think the others know about it either.” Coulson lowered his eyes. “Like I said, some experiences don’t leave you unscathed. Close the door, please.”

After she'd done what he asked, he pressed a button on his desk. The wall behind him started to move upwards, revealing an older wall, filled with engravings. It were the same ones he'd asked her to research, the same ones she'd just explained to him.

"What happened to you to get you to draw that?", Daisy asked incredulously. Coulson didn't smile this time.

"I died."

Somehow that fact didn’t surprise her. Over the course of her life, these kind of things had become a standard. Some people could control electricity, others died and came back to life.

She even wanted to joke about it, but held back when she saw the way he stared holes into the wall. Daisy guessed he wasn’t as used to those unnatural, cruel things in life.

“How did it happen?”

After a deep sigh, Coulson started explaining how he had been involved with the Avengers in the battle of New York.

“And then, just as I was about to shoot that thing, I got stabbed. Right in the heart, with an Asgardian staff.”

Daisy was impressed. In the past years, she’d had to switch identities a lot. One time, she’d decided to become a dedicated fan of Tony Stark, just for fun – and because nobody would expect a bubbly fangirl to be one of HYDRA’s targets. She’d actually taken a liking to the hero, and in turn also the rest of the team.

“You got stabbed by Loki?”, she exclaimed loudly. “And you met Tony Stark? And Thor too?”

“Actually”, Coulson said, “I think I recruited Tony. And yes, I did also meet Thor.”

She couldn’t believe he’d met Stark and seen Thor’s dreamy arms. “Lucky bastard.”

Coulson’s eyes shot up at her. “Are you forgetting the part where I died a painful death?”

“Nah”, Daisy shrugged, “I remember. We all die some time. Some of us rip families apart instead of bringing together a team of superheroes.”

“Why are you saying it like that?”, Coulson asked. Oops. Daisy looked away. When was she ever going to stop accidentally revealing sensitive information about herself?

“Daisy, don’t tell me you died.”

“Okay, I won’t say anything then”, she retorted. “Besides, that’s a story for another time. We should focus on you. How did you come back to life? Because I still don’t understand why you would start carving maps into wall because of that.”

After a short protest, Coulson resumed his story. He told her how he went looking for the thing that had brought him back and found an alien substance. Then he went on to explain who John Garrett was and what he’d done.

“Then I looked up at the board on which he’d been drawing the symbols. Well, map, actually, I guess. It was the first time I’d seen it, but somehow I just started drawing the rest, as if on instinct.”

Daisy swallowed with difficulty.

“I think it’s time I explain how I know it’s a map, because that will explain a lot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short update, the past week has been a difficult one and most days I couldn't find the time or mental space to write anything of worth (I blame the absence of sunlight for this).  
> I am really thankful for the people who leave a comment, I can really use the encouragement to continue this story.  
> Now, a short note about the coming month: as some of you might know, November is the National Novel Writing Month, and I'm participating for bonus points for my Writer Development course. To get the most out of this opportunity (read: as much bonus points as possible), I will try my absolute best to reach 50.000 words. This means you will probably not hear anything from me the next month.  
> After that, however, I will try my best to return to writing this story.  
> Once again, thank you to everyone who reads this story, it absolutely warms my heart that people want to read my stuff. See ya in December!!  
> Noah : )


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